As the Republican Party failed to pass a health care replacement to Obamacare, I was reminded of an old soccer joke. Keep in mind that since it was enacted in March 2010, Republicans in the House of Representatives have voted more than 60 times to either repeal, water down or otherwise alter the Affordable Care Act. Then, in January 2017, their dream came true. Republicans controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. So, here’s the old soccer joke, updated.
read more

Marine Le Pen of the National Front party modeled her French presidential campaign after that of Donald Trump, yet she lost by a margin of 66% to 34%, a bigger landslide than in any presidential election in U.S. history, going back to the beginning of popular elections in 1824. So why did what worked for Trump in the United States fail in France?read more

This year, a record 85 countries entered films in the Foreign Language category for the Academy Awards. I saw 82 of these films. 1. Normally, there are few comedies entered in this category, but this year was an exception. I attribute this to Sullivan’s Travels Syndrome, named after the classic 1941 Preston Sturges film. When times are hard and people are struggling to keep their heads above water, a good laugh goes a long way.read more

On March 19, 2016, the popular novelist Irving Wallace—my father—would have turned 100 years old. Instead of honoring my father by presenting a review of his achievements and recalling what a generous, warm-hearted person he was and how much enjoyment he brought to millions of readers around the world, I have decided to look at some of the developments he would have most appreciated if he had lived to be 100, instead of dying at the age of 74.read more

In a move that caught the media by surprise, the Republican National Committee (RNC) announced that it had gotten the approval of every one of the 17 leading declared Republican presidential candidates to publish a comprehensive platform for the 2016 elections.read more

Latest News

On September 21, 1998, President Bill Clinton testified on video in response to charges that he had lied about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky and had attempted to obstruct justice. This testimony, which lasted more than four hours, is still available on the internet. In a space of 21 years, we went from a videotaped interview that was released to the public; to an in-person interview without a video, audio or written record; to no in-person interview whatsoever.read more

Without using the word “impeachment,” Mueller and his team bluntly present the evidence that Trump has committed multiple impeachable offenses. Mueller considers eleven possible areas of obstruction. In some cases, Mueller writes that the acts do not rise to the level of legal obstruction of justice. But the majority do. read more

Back in 2006, I wrote a book called Tyrants: The World’s 20 Worst Living Dictators. I gave the dubious honor of first place to Omar al-Bashir of Sudan. Now, 13 years later, Bashir has finally been overthrown. Unfortunately, the man who led the military coup that overthrew Bashir is General Awad ibn Ouf, who, since 2006, has been financially sanctioned by the U.S. government for his role in the genocidal attacks carried out in the Darfur region of Sudan.read more

Attorney General William Barr’s four-page summary of the Mueller Report (which he now says was not a “summary”) included a grand total of 65 words from the report itself and zero complete sentences.
What if the context of the first and last excerpts are…read more